Kolkata: Former treasurer of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Biswarup Dey complained to President Sourav Ganguly about the lack of clarity during ticket distribution for the recently concluded India-England ODI match at the Eden Gardens. Though the CAB President Sourav Ganguly has ruled out all the allegations of the former treasurer by saying all the statements are baseless.
In an interaction with the media, former CAB treasurer showed a letter he wrote to Ganguly and said he might go to the parent body of Indian cricket BCCI if he didn’t get a “satisfactory response” within ten days.
Dey, who was forced out of CAB having completed nine years in administration, alleged that Dasgupta and his team had “unethically” denied him the “allotted quota of complimentary tickets.”
Ganguly however has refuted the allegations and said Dey would always take 200-300 tickets per match every time when there’s a match at Eden Gardens.
“He always takes about 200 to 300 tickets from me, so his allegations are baseless. I don’t want to comment further,” Ganguly said.
Citing Lodha’s verdict of transparency, Dey in a letter to Ganguly stated: “Lodha in his recommendation stated that the distribution of tickets for International/IPL matches should have transparency.
“In my case, the transparency of distribution of tickets is a question to CAB… I request you to kindly intervene in the matter and resolve the issue,” he wrote in his letter to Ganguly.
Dey argued that they could have allotted him tickets on basis of a former joint-secretary or a member of CAB affiliated unit even as his administrative career was ended on basis of Lodha verdict.
“I am very surprised that after rendering services to CAB in different capacities for the past several years, not a single ticket was given to me.”
Demanding a reply with valid reasons within a week’s time frame, Dey further threatened to move the Board.
Resorting to mud-slinging, Dey further claimed that he’s made a victim of the Lodha Committee recommendation something that’s non-applicable to Dasgupta, chairman of the Board of Trustees.
“He’s well past 70 years and has had nine years in tenure… How come he’s still continuing?” he asked. To this, Dasgupta replied: “It seems he does not know my age.”
Officials of the CAB has alleged that Biswarup is doing such kind of things only for publicity.
When asked about the allegation to Goutam Dasgupta, he added, ”Biswarup don’t have the courage to speak against the CAB President. We had distributed all the tickets like we do in every matche. Biswarup hadn’t sent any representative to collect his ticket and I didn’t receive any latter from President’s office to allot any ticket to Biswarup then, that’s why I had not allotted any tickets for him.”
He further added,” When Late Shri Jagmohan Dalmiya was the President of the CAB he was in charge of the distribution of tickets and now the power of distributing the tickets are in Sourav’s hand. Biswarup was an official of CAB for last ten years so he should know this. He is doing such kind of things for cheap publicity.”